FOI 5ac and then 17ac, LOI 18dn after the “MULCHAN? MALCHUN? Ohhhh!” penny finally and quite satisfyingly dropped. Not sure if the 13ac and 17ac combination indicates that the setter has been on a fitness drive lately… or perhaps they’ve decided to inflict harder puzzles on us going forward?
Clue of the day to 14dn for being an excellently fun and unlikely-looking word. Familiarity-breeds-contempt award to 23dn which seems to have been popping up everywhere lately. Though I’m sure Boise is very lovely at this time of year…
ACROSS
1 Corporal drunk in charge when guarding master (7)
SOMATIC – SOT I/C [drunk | in charge] when guarding MA [master]
5 Somebody‘s mum pinched by sexist? (3,4)
BIG SHOT – SH [mum] pinched by BIGOT [sexist?]
9 Make laws on introduction of inflammable rubbish (9)
LEGISLATE – LEG [on] + I{nflammable} + SLATE [rubbish, as in “to pan”]
10 Prime letters for clueing a single Italian (5)
LUIGI – the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th letters of {c}LU{e}I{n}G + I [a single]
11 Important vitamin fed to young animal (5)
FOCAL – C [vitamin] fed to FOAL [young animal]
12 Extreme difficulty with fit on small loose garment (5,4)
SHELL SUIT – HELL [extreme difficulty] with SUIT [fit], on S [small]
13 Socrates’ usual complicated challenge for division? (7,6)
ASSAULT COURSE – (SOCRATES’ USUAL*) [“complicated”]. A challenge “for division” not mathematically, but in the sense that soldiers conventionally have to undertake it.
17 Pervert acts as his mood changes (4-9)
SADO-MASOCHIST – (ACTS AS HIS MOOD*) [“changes”]
21 Line-up so worried about Times sacking? (9)
EXPULSION – (LINE UP SO*) [“worried”] about X [times]
24 John with odd bits of foam sponge (5)
LOOFA – LOO [john] with F{o}A{m}
25 Artist‘s champ (5)
MUNCH – double def
26 Brandy man on beer, drinking very quietly (9)
APPLEJACK – JACK [man] on ALE [beer], “drinking” PP [very quietly]
27 Party enforcing six-pack ban? It’s not possible (2,3,2)
NO CAN DO – a DO is a party; supposing that beer were to be prohibited at it, it could be a “no-can” do.
28 Old Frenchman‘s grazing cattle finally moving forward (7)
PASTEUR – PASTUR{<-E} [grazing, with the E (“{cattl}E finally”) moving two spaces closer to the start of the word.]
DOWN
1 Primarily sold packed lunches in fast food joint (6)
SPLIFF – S{old} P{acked} L{unches} I{n} F{ast} F{ood}
2 Tricky staff? (5,4)
MAGIC WAND – cryptic def
3 Hollow skins left in Tuesday’s scraps (7)
TUSSLES – S{kin}S L [left], in TUES [Tuesday]
4 Attendants from Europe breaking frame I chucked out (9)
CHASSEURS – EUR [Europe] “breaking” CHASS{i}S [frame, with its I “chucked out”]
5 Mark‘s first wife overlooked by brother (5)
BREVE – EVE [the first ever wife] overlooked by BR [brother]
6 Old scientist from Middle Eastern lake, briefly over (7)
GALILEO – GALILE{e} [Middle Eastern lake, “briefly”] + O [over]
7 After vacation, homework at uni contains first-class poem (5)
HAIKU – H{omewor}K + U [uni] “contains” A1 [first-class]
8 Finally bet on neither odd number (8)
THIRTEEN – {be}T on (NEITHER*) [“odd”]
14 College works to introduce new electronic notes? (9)
TECHNOPOP – TECH OP OP [college | works (x2) ] “to introduce” N [new]
15 Intelligent European principle (9)
RATIONALE – RATIONAL E [intelligent | European]
16 Savings at an end: it stops celebrity backing spender with lowbrow tastes (5,3)
ESSEX MAN – {saving}S + SEX [it] “stops” reversed NAME [celebrity “backing”]
18 Marshall in LA worked with 25 (7)
MCLUHAN – (LA + MUNCH*) [“worked”]
19 Hush after street leaves complaint (7)
ILLNESS – {st}ILLNESS [hush, after ST (street) leaves]
20 One who fails to beat king and queen (6)
TANKER – TAN K + ER [to beat | king + queen]
22 Anxiety relating to certain countries that’s not his (5)
PANIC – {his}PANIC [relating to certain countries, that doesn’t have its HIS]
23 State bore recalled stopping Nixon regularly (5)
IDAHO – reversed HAD [bore “recalled”] “stopping” {n}I{x}O{n}
My hour ended with that one guessed wrongly, and 14, 20 and 28 still to get. I was still figuring out whether “technopus” might be a thing when the bell went. Just a little bit too oblique for me, this one.
I imagine if I’d been born twenty years earlier, I’d have stood a lot more of a chance with the clue…
Humbug indeed.
On route to Oxford today for the rowing. How posh.
Mostly I liked: Munch and NoCanDo.
Thanks setter and V.
Actually I thought this was a cracking puzzle, though for quite a few answers I couldn’t work out the cryptic bit (e.g. 10a, 16d), so thanks for the enlightenment V.
“Lenny Bruce, declares a truce and plays his other hand.
Marshall McLuhan, casual viewin’, head buried in the sand.”
Philip S.
I’d not seen the prime letters device before, and thought it was even cleverer by miscounting the I of single as the eleventh letter.
My CHASSEURS come from the Sharpe novels as cavalry in rather fetching hats, or from kitchens equipped with mushrooms and shallots, so I took the attendant bit on trust.
APPLEJACK (especially without the hyphen) sparked today’s earworm, so if you want my love, won’t you tell me when?
The Socrates clue was a beast, obviously an anagram but indicating all sorts of garden paths to get lost in.
Good, crunchy, offbeat puzzle: impressive time and blog as ever, V.
Edited at 2018-05-25 07:14 am (UTC)
50 min
Old Frenchman = PASTEUR, just a little loose as a defintion, I fear, especially if one doesn’t know the defintion of ‘pasture’ as ‘grazing cattle’.
Didn’t know the ‘prime letters’ trick, so LUIGI was impossible explain.
I don’t like cross-referenced clues at the best of times, but having their answers intersecting is a step too far.
If I’ve heard of APPLEJACK I thought it was a cider. BREVE as a mark was also unknown.
Edited at 2018-05-25 07:50 am (UTC)
As one currently living in Essex, I can both vouch for the accuracy of the description and object 100% to the stereotype.
Edited at 2018-05-25 08:13 am (UTC)
Again struggled to get going (FOI LOOFA ten clues in !), and biffed Luigi (thanks V, a new device for me to remember !).
I’m cross with myself for failing to spot RATIONAL(E) only 24 hours after labouring with it yesterday, and it was LOI.
COD NO CAN DO. Also impressed with BIG SHOT and ESSEX MAN.
I should go and read up on my Canadian philosophers, but life really is too short.
A steady solve with a few confident biffs, only hesitation being LUIGI which I never managed to parse. I’ll remember that ‘prime’ trick – judging by the lack of comment, a familiar device to most, but new to me (or forgotten). 27m.
Thanks – Nila Palin
– Nila Palin
Cheers – Nila Palin
Nila Palin
I took numerous wrong turns, like thinking for a long time that ‘challenge for division’ would turn out to be an expression for a request for a vote by the opposition party. So my time was off the charts.
Good to have some Canadian content once in a while…
Fortunately I had heard of MCLUHAN. The two things I know about him are ‘the medium is the message’ and that cameo in Annie Hall. That’s pretty much the only thing I know about Annie Hall, in fact: I’ve never seen the rest of the movie.
Edited at 2018-05-25 03:55 pm (UTC)
Never heard of ESSEX MAN, which sounds like an archaeological discovery, so I appreciate the explanation.
The definition of TANKER seems a bit stretched. Sure, we say someone “tanks,” but I’ve never heard that noun used for a “loser.”
Americans may not have the term SHELL SUIT, but historically have been quite prone to wearing them. Off the rack. And look at our “president.”
First one in, SPLIFF. Great way to start. Ahhh, yes…
I very much enjoyed the little dip into number theory in the top-right corner. Perhaps when science and technology have established themselves fully as crossword fodder, we might see some of the prettier pieces of maths appearing more often.